Hello there! I'm Dr. Vinifera, or "Vinny" for short. Ask me your toughest wine questions, from the technical aspects of winemaking to the fine points of etiquette. I hope you find my answers educational and even amusing. Looking for a particular answer? Check my archive and my FAQs. You can also follow me on Twitter: @AskDrVinny.

Dear Dr. Vinny,

Regardless of the size bottle of sparkling wine, is there any difference in the pressure inside?

—John B., Carmel, Calif.

Dear John,

The pressure inside a bottle of bubbly is typically somewhere between 70 and 90 pounds per square inch. To give you some context, the air pressure in the tires of a car is only about a third of that. That’s why bubbly bottles are so thick.

For the most part, the pressure of sparkling wines is pretty consistent from bottle to bottle, but larger and smaller bottle formats might have slightly less pressure than a standard 750ml bottle. It has to do with the ratio of disgorgement and dosage, or because the wine is transferred from one bottle size to another. But the differences should be negligible, and you aren’t likely to notice them.

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